Identifying Writing Opportunities in Journaling and Therapeutic Writing
Day 11/31: Blog Your Own Book Challenge
This is my eleventh post for the Blog Your Own Book Challenge. In the previous post, I identified opportunities in writing memoirs which was the first of four topics I had narrowed down for 2020. In this article, I’ll identify writing opportunities in the second topic, which is Journaling and Therapeutic Writing.
I’ve noticed a steady increase in the number of people who have started journaling. Different people begin for different reasons and almost everyone who continues with this practice experiences multiple benefits from it.
One such practitioner wrote about why he finds Julia Cameron’s concept of Morning Pages to be better than meditation.
Michael A. LaPlante says he’s been saved by his journal in professional and possibly personal situations. I love it when he says:
You will gain “super powers” of both recollection and observation. — Michael A. LaPlante
Or when he talks of how a journal can help you spot patterns than need to be transformed:
The patterns you repeat and the breakthroughs you make will be revealed to you if you regularly write them down. — Michael A. LaPlante
Barry Davret’s Experience Journal has been the fuel for his writing.
After a year of refinement, I created the Experience Journal. I wrote about it a year ago. It had become my chief source of writing ideas. Since then, I’ve tweaked, tightened and perfected the process. It has now grown beyond an idea generation tool. — Barry Davret
Thomas Oppong, a popular writer on Medium writes about how a Worry Journal can help you deal with anxiety and stressful events.
Writing down your worries forces you to slow down — which can make think a bit clearer and often opens up a bit of space for reflection, meditation and positive thinking. — Thomas Oppong
Journaling — one simple practice with numerous benefits. To me, it’s clearly an important topic that should be written about. It also has a wide range of opportunities for writing. I have listed below, a few opportunities in writing articles about Journaling and Therapeutic Writing.
Write about the benefits of journaling
Journaling has a long list of benefits and many have also been reported in scientific journals. There’s a vast repository of topics and experiences to write about regarding the benefits of journaling. Here are a few examples.
It can help you with catharsis and emotional relief when you write your emotions in a journal.
It can help you relieve stress by writing about things that make you anxious or afraid. You can take this practice a step further by brainstorming solutions to your problem on paper.
It can help you feel good about yourself by writing about small and big successes and writing letters of appreciation to yourself. Or you can practice gratitude to raise your energetic vibes.
Write about various things you can record in a journal
A journal can be used to record a variety of things. In fact, this is such a vast area that I have a self-imposed rule that I will only write about those things that I personally record and have experience with.
The first technique I read about was Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages. Subsequently, I have also read about time logging, daily reviews, monthly and yearly reviews, goal setting/tracking, meeting notes, ideas, journeys, worries, emotions, key decisions, health trackers, and so much more.
I love this topic because it helps me show how we can push the boundaries of what’s possible with our journaling super-powers.
Write about how to organize your journal
Once you begin journaling you will soon have a plethora of journals. These journals, whether they are physical or digital, have to be organized and indexed because without proper organization you will not be able to draw the full power of your journal. I know because I have twenty-six boards in Trello with each board being a separate journal. I have come to the point where I have a lot of information and I need to organize it properly so I can find what I am looking for.
This is an important topic that can be viewed from many perspectives and can be done with different techniques. Each perspective or technique is a potential topic to write about.
Write about journaling accessories
Accessories are fun. They add variety, creativity, and some zing to the practice of journaling. Accessories can range from the choice of notebooks and pens, interesting adornments like washi tapes, colors, etc for paper-based journaling to digital products for digital journals.
Some people also use accessories like candles, scents, music, etc to create the right environment for journaling.
Even though we don’t want to shift the main focus from journaling to accessories, if used in the right proportions and with the right attitude, accessories can enhance one’s journaling practice and make it more joyful.
Write about how different people have journaled through the ages
Leonardo Da Vinci, Thomas Edison, Charles Darwin, Mark Twain, Marie Curie, and Albert Einstein are a few of the many famous people who used to maintain a journal.
If we examine our current times: Jennifer Aniston, Lady Gaga, Emma Watson, and Jessica Simpson are some of the celebrities who keep a journal.
I think it will be a fun and educational exercise to read and share about how these people maintain their journals and how they benefit from it.
Journaling and Therapeutic Writing is a vast and, in my opinion, an important topic that has the potential to fill your writing schedule for a long time. So if you are stuck on what to write, start journaling, learning, and sharing.
Thank you for reading my article! I hope it helped you expand the range of what you can write about.
